why Be is doomed...

Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 17:35:40 -0500 (EST)


tbyars@earthlink.net writes:
> A Be Box will sell (either a real Be or PowerComputing Clone) out the door
> for around $3k. Let's look at today's paper and see what we can build a
> Geek Box of our own for....
>
> [~ $955.00 worth of items omitted]
> Linux Slackware CD-ROM $20.00
>
> Total? $975.00 for a P-120 32/2.5/8X 64 Bit video/16 bit audio system.

And, of course, this system comes with an item which the BeBox lacks,
to the best of my knowledge, at *any* price... source code to just
about everything that the system runs, from the OS kernel on out. The
amount of Geek Appeal which Linux acquires simply from having source
available ("UTSL", folks) is enormous, and I'm somewhat perplexed that
an a company like Be with an avowedly geek-based marketing strategy
hasn't put together some kind of response in kind.

(NB there is an active effort to port Linux to the BeBox, which Be is
even cooperating with to some extent. You'd think that the very fact
that a lot of geeks --- Be's target market --- are enthusiastic about
replacing Be's new supercool OS with something else would be some kind
of a warning sign...).

rst